Pro-668: Upgrade options explained.

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ChibiPaw

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Just got off the phone with Whistler because I wanted a definitive answer from one of their tech.
I know some of this information is already known, and it seems a little redundant but I want to just write a quick PSA post to clarify what is considered "locked" according to WhistlerWendy's post and what are your options are.

In short, if you've lost DMR access, the radio is NOT upgradable. The following conditioned would have to happened:
4.6 CPU + DSP 3.1 , and have been powered on at least once.
This is not affected by lower version CPU, regardless DSP version.

Options:
1) Whistler will refund your $60, and return your radio
2) Will take your $60 toward a new TRX1 scanner. No mention of returning your Pro668.

So there you have it.

Some thoughts here:
This is probably one of the poorest PR move I've seen in a long time. With that said, Im pretty sure lots of people will for this principle migrate or stick with Uniden products. If anything it might even encourage people hack their products some more out of spite.

Food for thoughts. A TYT MD-2017 Dual Band radio only costs $230, shipped. It will allow you to listen in to all the DMR you want, AND talk to a DMR group. Granted if you're licensed to do so. It even has GPS built in,
 

SteveSimpkin

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A TYT MD-2017 Dual Band radio only costs $230, shipped. It will allow you to listen in to all the DMR you want...
Yes but a MD-2017 has some major drawbacks compared to a modern scanner.
It will not receive any DMR or analog audio outside of the limited VHF/UHF frequency range that it covers. It will not receive P25 systems. It will also not work with Teir 3 DMR trunking systems or analog trunking systems. I suspect it's scanning speed is muscular slower than a true scanner as well.
 

Fasteddy2

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Pro-668

Just got off the phone with Whistler because I wanted a definitive answer from one of their tech.
I know some of this information is already known, and it seems a little redundant but I want to just write a quick PSA post to clarify what is considered "locked" according to WhistlerWendy's post and what are your options are.

In short, if you've lost DMR access, the radio is NOT upgradable. The following conditioned would have to happened:
4.6 CPU + DSP 3.1 , and have been powered on at least once.
This is not affected by lower version CPU, regardless DSP version.

Options:
1) Whistler will refund your $60, and return your radio
2) Will take your $60 toward a new TRX1 scanner. No mention of returning your Pro668.

So there you have it.

Some thoughts here:
This is probably one of the poorest PR move I've seen in a long time. With that said, Im pretty sure lots of people will for this principle migrate or stick with Uniden products. If anything it might even encourage people hack their products some more out of spite.

Food for thoughts. A TYT MD-2017 Dual Band radio only costs $230, shipped. It will allow you to listen in to all the DMR you want, AND talk to a DMR group. Granted if you're licensed to do so. It even has GPS built in,

That is BS... this scanner is capable to receive DMR and they promised to give it to US for $60 ...
 
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That is BS... this scanner is capable to receive DMR and they promised to give it to US for $60 ...

Make their life miserable hold their feet to the fire. I talked to two electronic engineers work with these type of processsors and the radio can be reset.
 

Wackyracer

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That is BS... this scanner is capable to receive DMR and they promised to give it to US for $60 ...

Apparently Whistler is what you are doing while they stick it in your A$$ .....BAD BAD decision and execution on Whistler Groups part. This is coming from someone who WAS a whistler fan and now just thinks their evil.

Why the hell would you not state you have UNTIL such and such date (3 to 6mos window) to upgrade or you will loose the DMR function and be locked out from upgrading?

I truly believe Whistler has stepped on their proverbial DICK!!!
 

ChibiPaw

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If you already have the Pro-668, then P25 is not even a concern. Not sure why that's even brought up.

As far as TYT's DMR offerings, for the most part DMR Tier 2 is plenty especially for the price, and most systems that I've seen are are well in the frequencies range of the TYT units. Also, give it some time. The engineers of my people will no doubt come out with tier 3, and the market will be flooded just like Baofeng radios for pennies on the dollar.

Further more, if there are no incentives upgrade at any sort of discount. Why even bother with Whistler when you can buy Uniden? At least you'd know your money would go into a company that rather take the moral high road than going out of their way, and spending resource on a pure malice act than R&D.

Yes but a MD-2017 has some major drawbacks compared to a modern scanner.
It will not receive any DMR or analog audio outside of the limited VHF/UHF frequency range that it covers. It will not receive P25 systems. It will also not work with Teir 3 DMR trunking systems or analog trunking systems. I suspect it's scanning speed is muscular slower than a true scanner as well.
 

AtlasFBG2

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Apparently Whistler is what you are doing while they stick it in your A$$ .....BAD BAD decision and execution on Whistler Groups part. This is coming from someone who WAS a whistler fan and now just thinks their evil.

Why the hell would you not state you have UNTIL such and such date (3 to 6mos window) to upgrade or you will loose the DMR function and be locked out from upgrading?

I truly believe Whistler has stepped on their proverbial DICK!!!

If they would have stated that then someone would have figured out what they was doing and told everyone to downgrade to 4.5 to avoid being locked and still be able to use dmr.
 

Wackyracer

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If they would have stated that then someone would have figured out what they was doing and told everyone to downgrade to 4.5 to avoid being locked and still be able to use dmr.

Hind sight is 20/20, BUT if they didn't tell you which firmware would trigger the lock then most would of sent their scanner in and some would have rolled back to RS firmware and some would have been locked, but a lot less then now.
 
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Hind sight is 20/20, BUT if they didn't tell you which firmware would trigger the lock then most would of sent their scanner in and some would have rolled back to RS firmware and some would have been locked, but a lot less then now.

Just goes to show how dishonest Whistler really is. DonS knew darn good and well that the bad code was in firmware 4.6. Whistler is also lying about the fact that the PRO668 the can not be unlocked. I have talked to Electronic Engineers and this Micro Processor can be unlocked. You have
Whistler to thank for their dirty underhanded tricks because they are trying to get even with Eric. Then CPUNUT wonders why Eric won't answer his PM's. Really Whistler are you that underhanded? That is why Radio Shack could not get the updates for the PRO 668 before they went out of Business. Whistler I have no respect for you at all. Tired of Whistler lying.
 

ChibiPaw

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Just goes to show how dishonest Whistler really is. DonS knew darn good and well that the bad code was in firmware 4.6. Whistler is also lying about the fact that the PRO668 the can not be unlocked. I have talked to Electronic Engineers and this Micro Processor can be unlocked. You have
Whistler to thank for their dirty underhanded tricks because they are trying to get even with Eric. Then CPUNUT wonders why Eric won't answer his PM's. Really Whistler are you that underhanded? That is why Radio Shack could not get the updates for the PRO 668 before they went out of Business. Whistler I have no respect for you at all. Tired of Whistler lying.

Who cares about the peanut gallery anyways. He comes across to be "on the spectrum" with his approach and demonstrated social skills. I don't blame anyone who will just simply ignore him.
But look on the bright side. Yes, this whole this is really petty, especially on Whistler's part. But that's okay, free market will take care of that. As the scanner industry is quite small, and no doubt the word will be passed around. Ultimately Whistler's little stunt will simply will amount into advertisement and product loyalty toward Uniden.

Also if some unnamed hero comes up with another hack, I can safely say very few people who will have any hesitation to advertise and encourage as many people to to apply it. Do not underestimate the Streisand effect.
 

EricCottrell

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Hello,

Yes, the electronics techs are correct. The damage could be undone. As I have posted elsewhere, you need to take the radio apart, remove the rf shield(s) over the CPU, and hook up a TTL serial port and other wires to pads on the PCB, at least for the PSR-800. If the Renesas Flash Loader is still in the CPU chip, then it is possible.

However, there are several road blocks for anyone other than Whistler to do this. First, you need the unlock code to read or write the flash. GRE/Whistler uses one because they also use the sum of it to determine what bootloader is loaded on the radio. Second, you need a copy of a GRE/Whistler bootloader in a format that the Renesas Flash Loader can use. Even if the hurdles could be overcome, do you think Whistler would just let someone offer to fix and load Whistler code on the locked scanners? Whistler can refuse to fix the locked scanners since they do not support the models and go after anyone else that offered a fix to "protect their IP".

What I find interesting in past discussions is all my actions are unethical, yet Whistler is given total absolution because of their righteous crusade. There may have been good advice given, but the hypocrisy tends to make it look like it is just shifting the blame on others, or plain spin.

73 Eric
 

w5rah

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The good feelings I had about Whistler offering the upgrade path for legacy scanners quickly went away with this information.I understand there is a lot of debate on the legal, moral or ethical usage of the Whistler firmware and those who used it did so at their own peril. However even if Whistler had caused the scanners with the unofficial update to lose the DMR and essentially revert back to the original Radio Shack or GRE firmware, I would understand that, so long at the path to do the official upgrade was still available. But to write code to lock up a scanner like this is a bit over the top, especially when most of those with the unofficial upgrade, were wanting to send them in for the official upgrade.
 
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